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Heraklion, Greece, champions ‘active citizenship’ to further its learning city goals

The city of Heraklion, Greece, encourages active citizenship in an effort to increase education and lifelong learning in communities. The decision was reached during a three-day workshop that was held in the city from 3 to 6 March 2017 with the aim of developing new ways of implementing lifelong learning.

A member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC), Heraklion is looking to design and implement a variety of projects to build sustainable growth and cohesion of the local community. The city hopes to enlist not just the efforts of the local government, but of the community, therefore putting great emphasis on active citizenship for building a learning city in Heraklion.

During the three-day workshop 50 participants, consisting of citizens, adult educators, social workers and representatives of other local organizations focused on understanding the learning cities concept and actively engaged in deploying the capacities of communities to advance lifelong learning and safeguard a sustainable future.

The first and crucial step participants agreed on was to increase public awareness about the benefits of active citizenship and explore ways in which each person’s skillset can be used to positively contribute to the community. The first concrete step towards this objective will be a public art event, which is planned for September 2017 and will give citizens the opportunity to express in an artistic way their needs and expectations of a learning city.